2003 Bâtard-Montrachet Grand Cru

Boillot, who started harvesting his 2003 chardonnay on August 25, told me that these wines were showing surprisingly positive development in barrel. They were heavy at the beginning, even a bit cooked, but are now showing more fruit and better balance," he explained. Boillot did not acidify the musts, because he preferred to wait to see the impact of the malolactic fermentations. Since then he has added tartaric acidity as needed, "to obtain an equilibre gustative He noted that this was the first time he had ever acidified chardonnay. Boillot did his normal 24-hour debourbage in 2003 as he does not like to have a lot of solids in his young wines. But he believes in frequent batonnage of the fine lees, and was still stirring his barrels at the end of May, although less than usual. Boillot's 2002s showed impressively on my visit, with their rich, round fruit framed by firm minerality. Boillot considers 2002 a great vintage, in a style similar to the 1992s. Incidentally, Boillot told me that the temperature of his cellar, which is located beneath compact clay soil, barely reached 59oF during the stifling summer of 2003.